At the heart of the current economic crisis is the story of debt — of debts gone bad, of debts not repaid, and debts that should never have been agreed to in the first place. We spend more than we have, and if we don’t pay it back, the system fails.

It’s always been so — according to novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood, whose new book presents debt as one of humankind’s most powerful metaphors.

“Debt is like air,” she writes, “something we take for granted until things go wrong.” And then what?

This hour, On Point: “Payback” — Margaret Atwood’s timely consideration of “debt and the shadow side of wealth.”

You can join the conversation. What does debt mean to you? Is it a natural part of our condition? When did it become okay to be in debt…and what happens when we can’t pay it back?

-Anthony Brooks, guest host

Guest:

Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood has published more than forty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Alias Grace,” and “The Blind Assassin.” Her newest book, from her upcoming CBC Massey Lecture series, is “Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.”

Read an excerpt from “Payback” at the Times Online.

(AP Photo)

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Easy consumer credit is nothing new, but Americans are turning to their credit cards as never before — and racking up debt at unprecedented rates.

Never before, we’re told, have so many Americans owed so much at such high interest rates. And with mortgage troubles deepening, and the economy struggling, some fear personal debt could be the next shoe to drop.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with a bill that would rein in the American credit card industry, but consumer advocates say Washington isn’t going far enough to tame an unruly credit-card industry. What can consumers, lenders, and the government do to avert a crisis?

This hour, On Point: You’re pre-approved! Credit cards, consumers, and a nation in debt.

You can join the conversation. Are you in debt on your credit cards yourself? If so, have you been splurging, or are you using your credit cards just to survive?

-Jane Clayson, guest host

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Guests:

Joining us from Cambridge, Mass., is Elizabeth Warren. She’s the Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School, and an expert on credit card debt and bankruptcy. She’s written several books, most recently “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan” which she co-authored with her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi.

Joining us from Portland, Oregon, is J.D. Roth. He’s the man behind the well-known personal finance blog “Get Rich Slowly.” The blog started out as a chronicle of how he himself overcame $35,000 of personal debt, including about $20,000 in credit card debt.